


Just Let It Slip

by elegantanagram (Lir)



Series: HSWC 2014 Bonus Round Fills [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Canon Compliant, Gen, POV Third Person, Teaching, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 05:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1677071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/elegantanagram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"It's easy, man," Bro says, even though he's so lying, and Dave thought his Bro had promised he'd never lie to him? His hands come down, settling at Dave's hips, lightly twisting him to and fro. This at least is familiar; Dave goes loose just as he's been taught, ready to duck and roll, or to dodge in any direction to get out of a sword's path. "It's all in the movement." </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Let It Slip

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the first bonus round of the 2014 [Homestuck Shipping World Cup.](http://hs-worldcup.dreamwidth.org/) The prompt was "Remember the time Bro taught Dave to Flashstep?"
> 
> I thought this was a really cool, cute prompt, and had a pretty straightforward idea for how I wanted to go about it. So, have cute brotherly bonding fic in which Bro is actually a good mentor. The title is totally referencing Eminem's "Lose Yourself."

-

One second he's there, and then he's just – gone. 

Dave flinches, blinking his eyes hard, and Bro taps him on the shoulder. When he looks up, his brother is behind him, Lil Cal dangling from his shoulders and a pitying smile just tugging at his lips. Dave tried so hard to watch, to catch the moment when Bro moved, but it's still too fast for him to track. How will he ever learn to do that, if he can't even see what Bro is doing? 

"It's easy, man," Bro says, even though he's so lying, and Dave thought his Bro had promised he'd never lie to him? His hands come down, settling at Dave's hips, lightly twisting him to and fro. This at least is familiar; Dave goes loose just as he's been taught, ready to duck and roll, or to dodge in any direction to get out of a sword's path. "It's all in the movement." 

Bro kneels down, his hands moving to Dave's knees. He guides Dave back and forth, nudging his feet, leading him through a little two-step that comprises the flashstep moves in slow motion. It's quick-quick-slow, and Dave isn't sure if he should really count the slowed-down slide. How's that going to help him get anywhere at his brother's inhuman super-speed? 

"Told you," Bro says. "You're doin' great, lil man. You've got the concept of it down already – you're gonna be a natural." 

Dave struggles so hard not to preen, not to grin too wide because he only wants to smile in that slow, crooked style his brother does and not with the uncool, toothy way he always does when he forgets. Praise from Bro never comes lightly – he only says "good job" when it's been earned. 

"I still don't know how you move so fast," Dave admits, at the cost of some pride. "This isn't going to get me anywhere, except maybe dancing at a crossroads for a devil's deal."

"Do it again," Bro says. 

It's not an explanation, but Dave listens anyway. Bro will be even less likely to tell him the secret if he complains. He sets off sideways across the roof, skip-skip-stride over and over in a loping gait that does take him quickly along his diagonal course, but which does not once make him disappear and reappear. He's light on his feet, at least, sneakers silent on the gritty asphalt. That lesson, he learned well. 

Dave stops when he reaches the other side of the roof, looks back to Bro for approval, and Bro isn't there. He whips his head around, and Bro is back, standing behind him as if he'd been there all along. 

"The other part," Bro begins, "is all about timing. You need to really feel the moment. Inhabit that single second so fiercely it stretches out like the most beautifully complex beat before the bass drop, and it'll last. Move inside the moment, and from one second to the next--" 

Bro appears on Dave's other side, tapping him on the shoulder again. This time, Dave thinks he really did see Bro move. "--you'll get where you need to go, and no one the wiser who doesn't know the trick." 

"One more time," Dave says. "Come on, do it one more time." 

Bro flashes back to Dave's other side, and Dave can see the aftertrail, a motion at the edge of his eye where, for a single second, Bro appears to be both places at once. It's the first time he's fully caught it. As soon as Bro is standing still, he grins at Dave. 

Dave's got this. He's going to make the moment his. 

-

-


End file.
